From Dare to Due Date

by Christy Jeffries

  “It’s been five minutes,” Cooper called out from the kitchen. “We’re coming in whether you’re dressed or not.”

  Kylie was the first to emerge through the door. “I’ve had to pee since we turned in the gate,” she yelled before doing some sort of running waddle toward the bathroom.

  Maxine rolled in a suitcase behind her and Mia walked over to her friend, her posture erect and her chin high—as if they had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. And really, they didn’t, seeing as how they were two grown, consenting adults. But he still felt a small thrill of pride that she wasn’t humiliated to be caught in such a flagrant situation with him.

  “Sorry to intrude like this,” Drew said, ever the diplomatic psychologist. “We did bring steaks, though, as a sort of peace offering.”

  “Actually, we brought half of Duncan’s Market with us,” Cooper said, gesturing his thumb toward the kitchen. “We weren’t sure how determined your parents were going to be so we wanted to make sure you two were well stocked to ride out the storm.”

  Kylie came out of the bathroom just then. “Thank goodness. I’m starved.”

  “You’re always hungry,” Maxine said.

  “That’s because I’m eating for three. Why don’t I whip something up?”

  “No,” several voices, including Mia’s, shouted. Apparently, the redheaded CPA was not known for her prowess in the kitchen.

  “Cooper knows how to work Cessy’s grill, so why don’t the guys go outside to barbecue the steaks, and us ladies will take charge making the side dishes?”

  Garrett didn’t like Maxine’s suggestion only because he could see a light dusting of snow on the deck already and knew it would be freezing outside. But he wanted to give Mia her space and figured she would probably like some time alone with her girlfriends—hopefully, not to talk about him.

  Thirty minutes later, they were sitting around Ms. Walker’s dining room table, which looked as if it could seat the entire marching band from Sugar Falls High School, along with their instruments. Even the teak-and-bamboo-filled mansion in his father’s house didn’t have anything this ostentatious.

  Speaking of his father, Cooper brought up the Botoxed elephant in the room. “So what’s the plan for getting Dr. McCormick and his television show out of town?”

  “Maybe you can just arrest anyone walking down the street with a video camera,” Kylie suggested before spearing a piece of filet mignon.

  “As much as I’d like to, I can’t. It’s a public area. Plus, the chamber of commerce isn’t opposed to some free publicity. But the mayor did say that if things get too crazy in town, it could diminish our reputation as a...what were his words... ‘A tranquil and idyllic vacation destination.’ So suffice it to say, it’s in everyone’s best interest if we get them to leave as soon as possible.”

  “Does that include my mom?” Mia asked. “She doesn’t have a camera, but I’m sure she would be the first one lined up to offer an exclusive interview.”

  “Your mom didn’t seem that bad,” Garrett said. “A little clumsy, maybe, but relatively harmless.”

  “Clearly, you don’t know my mother. What she lacks in grace, she more than makes up for in tenacity.”

  Maxine passed the bowl of mushroom risotto to him. “If you think my ex-mother-in-law is persistent, Ms. Palinski could run circles around Cessy Walker and be on the phone with every talent agent in Hollywood while she was doing it. No offense, Mia.”

  “Trust me, none taken. It’s true, Garrett.” She looked at him briefly before piling her plate full of spinach salad. At least her appetite was back. “My mom’s biggest goal in life was to make a name for her only daughter by any means necessary. She can be a hammerhead shark when she makes up her mind about something.”

  “So what’s the goal for you two?” Drew asked. “Once we figure out what we want to achieve, then we can formulate a plan to make that happen.”

  Garrett knew Kylie’s husband was great at his job treating soldiers with PTSD, and this was one of the first rational ideas he’d heard all day.

  “My short-term goal is to stay out of the news and off my father’s television show,” he said. “I’d been doing pretty well at it, too, until one of my schoolmates publicized my personal life. My long-term goal is to get my medical practice up and running and live a relatively quiet and peaceful life up here in Sugar Falls.”

  Everyone but Mia laughed as if this was the funniest idea they’d ever heard. “What?”

  “You’re about to have a child,” Drew said. “I don’t think your life is ever going to be quiet or peaceful again.”

  Not that Garrett had been around too many kids, but surely it wouldn’t be all that bad. So far, Mia and he seemed to be on the same page with this co-parenting thing. Although, after this afternoon on the living room sofa, Garrett wasn’t exactly sure that he wanted to keep his distance from her too much. It wasn’t as if he believed in marriage or happily ever after, but they were getting along really well so far and if what they’d done a couple of hours ago was a perk of parenthood, then he’d be a happy father, indeed.

  “Mia.” Cooper reached for a piece of hot French bread and slathered it generously with butter. “What about you?”

  She shrugged. “I just want to have a happy and well-adjusted baby. I want my knee to get better, or at least as better as it’s going to be. I want to teach dance without my mother constantly telling me I’m settling. And I want to make sure that Nick Galveston never gets out of prison or finds out where I am.”

  And there it was. The reason why she could never truly be with Garrett.

  If he was in her life, he could guarantee every single one of those things except Nick finding her again. Or her mother issues. Everyone had to deal with wacky parents, so she was on her own with that. But if his famous father and the media’s obsession with exposing his whereabouts brought Mia or their child into danger, he would never forgive himself.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Okay, so here’s what I suggest,” Kylie said after dinner as she brought out a tray full of Maxine’s cookies with ice cream sandwiched inside.

  Garrett didn’t take one as she passed the tray. He hadn’t been able to eat much at dinner. But now that he’d resigned himself to the fact that he and Mia couldn’t ever be together, his appetite was completely gone.

  She continued. “My brother, Kane, had to pull a disappearing act back when he was leaving Chicago so the press wouldn’t constantly hound him about whether or not he would be able to play baseball again. He told everyone he was going to Scottsdale, Arizona, for surgery and some R and R.”

  “But I’d prefer not to go anywhere,” Garrett said. He’d been on the move since he’d been eighteen. He was finally at a point where he wanted to put down roots. Where he wanted to stop running. “I’m trying to get my orthopedic clinic up and operating and I can’t do that from Scottsdale, or anywhere else.”

  Mia pulled her cookie apart and started on the ice cream first. “I have dance classes scheduled and the Christmas pageant I’m working on. I mean, I could probably get you ladies and a couple of my other teachers to cover for me, but I can’t just leave all my students hanging indefinitely.”

  “No, that’s not what I’m saying,” Kylie said as she took two ice cream sandwiches off the tray before passing it on to her husband. “I meant you tell everyone you’re going somewhere and leave a fake trail of bread crumbs for them to follow. They take off to look for you and when it’s all clear, you two resurface and go back to living your ordinary lives.”

  “Like a red herring!” Drew took only one dessert, unlike his wife.

  But then they’d still be living with the threat of being discovered again. Garrett thought of Kane and the way the famous baseball pitcher had ducked out of the Cowgirl Up Café when he’d seen the cameraman coming. The whole point w
as to stop hiding out.

  “We’ll tell them that you eloped,” Cooper suggested and Garrett almost choked on his ice cream.

  “Nobody will believe that I’ve run off to get married. Even my dad knows me better than that.” He didn’t see Mia set her uneaten cookie on her plate or look down at the napkin in her lap.

  “Not if we make them believe it,” Kylie said. “I can sell anything. First, you guys call them and tell them that with all the pressure, you decided to just run off to Aruba or Bali or somewhere for a babymoon.”

  “What in the heck is a babymoon?” Cooper asked.

  “It’s when the expectant parents go on vacation as a sort of last hurrah before the baby gets here. Drew and I are going back to Reno for ours. It’s a totally romantic thing to do.”

  Several voices chirped into the conversation to discuss the fake destination for their fake plan—a plan Garrett thought was absurd at best.

  “Reno was the most romantic place they could come up with?” he whispered to Mia.

  “That’s where they got married,” Mia whispered back. “But they were both drunk and didn’t remember it, so they’re going to go back and renew their vows.”

  He glanced over at the unlikely couple—a straight-laced, bespectacled psychologist and a sassy redhead with a penchant for high heels. Maybe it wasn’t the most orthodox of marriages, but it seemed to work for them. Besides Cooper and Maxine, Garrett had never seen a couple more in love with each other than Drew and Kylie.

  The psychologist stroked a loving hand over his wife’s extended stomach. Seeing the glow of pregnancy reminded Garrett of where he and Mia were going to be in just a few months. And even though they’d just made love and he was feeling closer than ever to her, the fact remained that there were still so many unknowns. Plus, she was somewhat, in a sense, hiding out from that Nick guy, and Garrett’s father was on a full-blown crusade to expose both him and Mia to the world. Or at least, to his adoring viewers.

  The couples continued to discuss the types of clues they would leak to the press, and the plan was sounding more asinine by the second. Gerald McCormick may look like an old, sun-weathered surfer, but he was a smart and savvy man. He would be waylaid for only so long before he and his television crews ended up right back in Sugar Falls. And as long as that possibility was an issue, Mia would never truly be safe.

  “Listen, guys.” Garrett held up his hands, quieting the dramatic crowd. “My not being completely up-front with my father about my feelings is what got us into this mess. I’m not going to lie to him or spend my life hiding out. I’ll get in touch with him tomorrow and speak with him one-on-one.”

  Even as Garrett said the words, he knew there was no guarantee that any conversation he’d have with his dad would have any long-lasting effect. He needed to provide Mia with a bit of security, no matter how temporary it might be, but that didn’t mean everything would be lollipops and rainbows after that. As much as he wanted to, he wouldn’t be able to protect her privacy forever.

  And he couldn’t bring himself to be the person who was constantly putting her in jeopardy of being exposed to the press or the reason why she needed to live like a hermit. She’d eventually resent him and he’d end up hating himself.

  Nope. It could never work out between them.

  Once he explained things to his father and they got rid of the immediate threat, then Garrett would need to figure out a way to let her go—for her own safety.

  * * *

  “Hi, Mom,” Mia said into her cell phone after her friends and their husbands left.

  “Don’t you ‘hi, Mom’ me.” Rhonda wasted no time. “The entire Sugar Falls Chamber of Commerce knew my baby girl was pregnant before I did. And then you just left me there with that big shot producer trying to figure out what was going on and how we could put a positive spin on it.”

  “I’m sorry I took off like that and didn’t tell you myself. It’s just that things with Garrett and the baby have been so sudden and unexpected and I was trying to get everything in order before I shared the news with you.”

  “Who’s Garrett?” Sheesh, was her mom serious?

  “Garrett, Mom. You know the man from the café?” The man who is the father to your unborn grandchild?

  Okay, so she left out that part at the end, but it was a fact Mia couldn’t afford to forget. She watched the subject of their conversation as he stood at the kitchen sink, doing dishes and looking more sexy than domestic.

  “Oh, you mean GP? Dr. McCormick’s son?”

  “Uh, yes, he is Dr. McCormick’s son. But his name is Garrett and he’s also a doctor.”

  “Well, I don’t care what you want to call him, Mia. He’s loaded and his dad has a lot of connections in Hollywood. If you play your cards right, you could land some sort of dance school reality show. Even if you can’t dance yourself, you might be able to make something of your career.”

  The old Mia would’ve winced at the careless remark. But the new and improved and empowered Mia was going to speak up for herself.

  “Mom, I like my career just fine. You know that I don’t care about that show business stuff.”

  “Well, you should care. Do you have any idea how many jobs I lost hauling you around to audition after audition? How many know-it-all dance teachers I had to kiss up to in order to get you enrolled in their classes? And for what? To have you bust up your knee and get knocked up? I did not sacrifice my entire life for you to sit around and play Holly Homemaker out in the Idaho wilderness.” Mia listened to the familiar rant, one hand nestled over her own baby, as if she could cover its ears from the harsh and unfair reprimand. She’d never asked her mother to make those choices. “But at least this time, you landed yourself a good catch. You’re finally making some lemonade out of those damn lemons you’ve been hauling around.”

  “You’re right, Mom. I’ve always made the best of things, even when you coerced me into everything you wanted me to do. And I’m making a lot more than lemonade this time. I’m going to be an amazing parent and I am very excited about this baby.”

  There was a long silence on the other end of the line and Mia had to wonder if her mother even heard what she’d just said. She could see the woman pinching the bridge of her nose, trying to think of a different way to get what she wanted. “Gah, I can’t believe I’m going to be a grandmother already. You’re going to lose your figure, you know.”

  “Probably.”

  “Well, at least your father-in-law will be able to do a tummy tuck and boob lift afterward. Wait. You and GP are getting married, right?”

  She doubted it. But she didn’t want to bring up his comment at the dinner table while she was trying to convince her mom that she had her life under control.

  “It’s Garrett, Mom, and we haven’t gotten that far.”

  “Are you taking your prenatal vitamins?”

  The maternal question tugged at Mia’s heart and she was reminded that her mother really did love her, in her own selfish way. “Yes, Mom.”

  She could hear her mother sigh on the other end of the line. “I worry about you, you know? I’ve always wanted what’s best for you.”

  “I know that.” She really did. The problem was that Rhonda Palinski wanted what she thought was best for her daughter and wasn’t willing to listen to anyone else’s opinion on the matter. Mia squeezed her eyes closed. She was not going to get emotional right now. Not here. “But you have to trust me that this is what’s best for me and for your grandchild.”

  “I know. And I do trust you, even if I never stop worrying about you. As a parent, you’ll learn that it’s hard to just switch off the caring button when your own baby grows up. Speaking of which, do you know whether we’re having a boy or a girl yet?”

  “Not yet.”

  “M’kay, but don’t forget that a lot more boys have been getting
into dance now. So don’t worry if it’s not a girl. We can still work with him and make sure he gets a good background in ballet and tap, but we might have to enroll him in gymnastics pretty early on. Thank goodness GP’s family can probably afford private lessons.”

  “You know, that’s a great idea. If you see Garrett’s dad before he leaves town, make sure you run that idea past him.”

  One of Garrett’s brows shot up and she wondered if he could hear the other side of the conversation. Sheesh, she hoped not. She swallowed a pang of guilt for purposely unleashing her persistent but well-meaning mother on her child’s grandfather. But really, if they were both going to interfere in their grandchild’s life, then Rhonda and Gerald would have to duke it out between themselves first. At least it would keep them occupied and off her back.

  “Anyway, Mom, I’m not coming back to the apartment tonight. I’m going to be staying with a friend.” She chanced a look at Garrett to see if he had any reaction to her mentioning her plan to spend the night with him, but he was scrubbing a pan with the same concentration he probably used in the operating room. “Maybe we can meet up tomorrow and catch up?”

  “Of course. Bye, baby girl,” her mom said, then disconnected.

  Mia let out a breath and set down the phone. Talking to her mom was like getting her eyebrows plucked—painful, but thankfully necessary only every few weeks.

  Plus, some positive things had come out of their conversation, so it hadn’t been a complete failure. She’d stood up to her mom and reminded her that Mia was now calling the shots in her own life. Nobody else.

  Now, if she could only figure out what to do with her baby’s dad.

  Garrett had clearly said he wasn’t the type to run off and get married. Sure, they could co-parent all they wanted to, but where did they draw the emotional line? After what she’d experienced on the sofa earlier, Mia didn’t think she would be happy with such a casual relationship. Either they were a couple or they weren’t. As much as her behavior lately suggested otherwise, she wasn’t a woman who would allow herself to be used at a man’s whim.